Riot police patrol the streets of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. After fighting between Uighurs and Hans in 2009, the government has maintained a heavy police presence in the city.

An overhead view of the Old City of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China, seen in a public display of government plans to redevelop the section.

Workers herd sheep through the streets of the Old Town section of Kasghar, Xinjiang, China.

A young boy plays on a support wire in the Old Town section of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

Plans for the redevelopment of the Old City of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. The plans will radically change the neighborhood, replacing the old-style alleyways and houses with contemporary Chinese apartment block style residences.

Buildings near the Grand Bazaar are demolished as part of a plan to redevelop the Old City of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

Installed in 1968 during a time of ethnic tensions, this statue not far from the Old City in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China, is one of the largest statues of Chairman Mao Zedong in China.

MAY NOT PUBLISH WITHOUT SPECIAL WRITTEN PERMISSION OF M SCOTT BRAUER. REQUIRES ADDITIONAL APPROVAL
Mohmat Abdukhadr, 60, smokes marijuana to relieve the pains due to his poor health in his home near the Grand Bazaar in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. While Abdukhadr blames the central government for much of the trouble affecting the Uighurs in Xinjiang, he is optimistic about plans to rebuild ramshackle houses in the Old City.
MAY NOT PUBLISH WITHOUT SPECIAL WRITTEN PERMISSION OF M SCOTT BRAUER. REQUIRES ADDITIONAL APPROVAL

Uighur men bake flat bread (nan) in a barrel oven in the Old City section of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

Uighurs walk among the debris of a demolished area of the old town in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. If government plans are followed, the old style housing will be replaced by highrise apartment buildings as seen throughout the rest of China.

Men butcher a cow outside of a small mosque in the Old City of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

High-end businesses aimed at the Han community abutt the southern edge of the Old City in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

A bakery displays girde nan, which resemble bagels, in the Old City section of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

Uighur workers transport building materials used in home improvements in the Old City section of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

Government officials tour a public display of construction plans for the Old City of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. The display provides visual evidence of houses in poor condition and lays out plans for the future of the city.

Uighurs walk through a market in the center of the Old City in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

Uighur barbers shave clients in an alley on the outer edge of the Old City section of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

Cranes hover above the Old City of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

Remember Old Kashgar

One of the world’s oldest cities, Kashgar serves as both the spiritual and political capital of traditional Uighur culture. Since 1949, the modern People’s Republic of China has exerted strong control over the region, and Kashgar has been particularly hard hit. Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, a province covering 1/6th of China’s territory holds a majority of the country’s oil and gas reserves. Long at odds with the Uighurs’ sometimes bloody quest for independence, the Chinese government has insituted a program of subsidized migration and settlement in the area by Han majority Chinese. In so doing, the government hopes to develop a stable and robust economy whose purpose is the exploitation of the region’s natural resources and to overwhelm the local ethnicities. Whereas the Uighur population of Kashgar was previously as high as 90%, as a result of government resettlement, the Uighur population is plummeting.

At the heart of Kashgar is the so-called Old City. A candidate for UNESCO World Heritage status, the twisting alleyways and haphazardly built houses clump together and spring out of the city’s terrain in an organic and natural way. After sporadic uprisings and fighting between Uighurs and Hans, the Beijing-controlled municipal government has unveiled plans to completely renovate the Old City. Uighur families who’ve lived in the same location for, in some cases, hundreds of years will be uprooted and resettled in cookie cutter apartment blocks built according to contemporary Chinese building standards. Notwithstanding the individual upheaval of this process, the redevelopment of central Kashgar will radically transform the nature of daily life in the Uighur community. The alleyways of the Old City create a naturally closed and safe neighborhood structure in which children can play and neighbors interact without fear of outsiders or traffic. These alleyways also lead to central streets, arteries for the community on which Uighur-owned businesses thrive.